By Janet Sasson Edgette, Psy.D
Sharing the quiet neighborhood in which I grew up was a girl I’ll call Marcie. Marcie wasn’t a particularly nice girl, but that didn’t stop me or any of the other kids in the neighborhood from trying to be her friend. She toyed sadistically and expertly with our wishes to be part of her “in” group.
One summer she made each of us pinkie swear that we believed her story about there being the decapitated Frankenstein heads underneath the sewer lids on our street. I didn’t believe in Frankenstein, but I was afraid to not believe in Marcie. I spent one whole year engrossed in the terrible, tantalizing fantasy of lifting off those lids and finding heads in varying states of decay.
Blog
November 8, 2012 - 9:29am
This sign was posted on a fence a few yards from where Marcelo Lucero was killed in a hate crime attack on Nov. 8, 2012 in Patchogue, NY.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of Marcelo Lucero’s hate crime killing in Patchogue, NY. Marcelo’s death unveiled a pattern of anti-immigrant attacks that had gone unnoticed for years. We documented Patchogue’s efforts to heal divisions after tragedy in Light in the Darkness, and we remember Marcelo Lucero today because immigrants are still vulnerable to violence.
A young Mayan man recently came to our office to share the story of how he was severely beaten by white supremacists on the streets of San Francisco last year. “I felt the first blow hit me and from there it didn’t stop,” he told us. “I didn’t know how to escape.”
November 7, 2012 - 1:53pm
In this piece from MTV's A Thin Line blog, Liz Stark talks about the Not In Our School model.
Ever since we were little, we have listened to lessons about kindness and respect. Treat people the way you wish to be treated. The Golden Rule. I have always thought that the “Golden Rule” got its nickname because chemical gold is an inert metal; in a sense, it never rusts and never fades. The Golden Rule isunyielding and timeless; a universal truth.
November 5, 2012 - 5:30pm
Superstorm Sandy has battered the Northeast, the losses ranging from homes to loved ones. Still, these stories show us how neighbors are courageously stepping forward to help and rebuild after the storm.
Belle Harbor residents lend surfboards, kayaks to relief efforts
Though faced with a four-foot high wall of water in their streets, residents of this Queens beach town worked together and used whatever they could to help neighbors in the midst of Hurricane Sandy.
One man used his surfboards and kayaks to ferry his 82-year-old mother and other residents on his street to safety, while others helped evacuate neighbors from their burning homes. This story was originally reported on CBS News.
Comsewogue community holds food drives to help hurricane-ravaged areas
November 1, 2012 - 10:47am
By Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center Senior Fellow It happened again this week. A woman in Louisiana told police that she had been set afire in a horrifying hate crime Sunday — only to have police, after a full-tilt investigation,say yesterday that she had fabricated the story.Sharmeka Moffit, 20, set herself on fire in a park in Winnsboro, LA, Police Chief Lester Thomas told a news conference late yesterday. She earlier told police that she had been attacked by three men of unknown race who were wearing “T-shirt hoodies.” A racial slur and the letters “KKK” were found daubed on her car when police arrived within one minute of her call to 911. A major investigation involving the Winnsboro Police Department, the Franklin Parish Sheriff’s Office and the state police was launched.